The Royal British Bank was a British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 joint-stock

Joint stock company

A joint-stock company is a type of corporation or partnership involving two or more individuals that own shares of stock in the company...

 bank, established under a Royal Charter

Royal Charter

A royal charter is a formal document issued by a monarch as letters patent, granting a right or power to an individual or a body corporate. They were, and are still, used to establish significant organizations such as cities or universities. Charters should be distinguished from warrants and...

 in 1849, that collapsed in 1856, causing a scandal.

In 1858 the eight directors — not including the bank's founder, John MacGregor

John MacGregor (Glasgow MP)

John MacGregor was born near Stornoway in the Western Isles of Scotland, but lived in Canada between the ages of 6 and 30 years. He was a civil servant in Canada, then moved to Britain as a businessman, author, civil servant as joint secretary to the Board of Trade from 1840–1847, and politician...

, Member of Parliament

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 for Glasgow, who had left the bank in 1854 and died in 1857 — were put on trial in February 1858 for conspiracy to defraud the bank's customers at the Court of Queen's Bench before the Lord Chief Justice

Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales

The Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales is the head of the judiciary and President of the Courts of England and Wales. Historically, he was the second-highest judge of the Courts of England and Wales, after the Lord Chancellor, but that changed as a result of the Constitutional Reform Act 2005,...

, Lord Campbell

John Campbell, 1st Baron Campbell

John Campbell, 1st Baron Campbell PC, KC was a British Liberal politician, lawyer, and man of letters.-Background and education:...

. On the first day of the trial the Prince of Wales

Edward VII of the United Kingdom

Edward VII was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910...

 attended and sat on the bench next to the Lord Chief Justice. The jury

Jury

A jury is a sworn body of people convened to render an impartial verdict officially submitted to them by a court, or to set a penalty or judgment. Modern juries tend to be found in courts to ascertain the guilt, or lack thereof, in a crime. In Anglophone jurisdictions, the verdict may be guilty,...

found each of the defendants guilty of the charges and they were given sentences ranging from a nominal fine of one shilling to imprisonment for up to one year. By July 1858, however, only one of the convicted, the former manager of the bank and arguably the least influential person among the convicted, yet remained in prison.